At what point did German defeat in WW2 become inevitable?

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Resistance activities in Yugoslavia were so pathetic that the Yugoslavs managed to drive the Axis out of their country before the Red Army reached their border?

Not to take anything away from the partisans, but I have a feeling that the Germans were pretty busy elsewhere at the time...

At the time of the Normandy landings, the Yugoslav partisans were holding down more German divisions than 2 Allied armies in Italy.

[Shogun Gunner]

and were actively supplied by the British and US

[techumseh]

That's true. And so were the American and British armies in Italy!

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by mrmitchell

Would it not be the greatest twist of all time if it had been an 90 year old WWII veteran posting Turkish chicks and hollering "I'd hit it" every time someone mentioned a female?

You boys don't even know the half of it. Oh those volunteer Turkish nurses.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Moscow falls, I guess. So?

Do you really think the Japanese would "get their butts kicked" by a country whose capital had just fallen to the Nazis? The Russians could've held off a Japanese attack with Zhukov and his Siberian troops, but they probably would've lost the war because of it...

Heh heh, this isn't a Civ game. Moscow's industry was already moved across the Urals. The administrative structure was already partly dispersed. The citizens would be trapped but the leadership would evacuate and maintain control.

Originally posted by Patroklos
Ever wonder why a blockade caused the capitulation of Germany in WWI but had no appreciable effect on her in WWII? Ever wonder why starvation was never a problem in Germany up to the very end?

At first Wilhelm thought that America was good at making toasters but not guns and tanks. After a year Wilhelm recognized that the huge manpower and industrial might brought to bear from the USA doomed his efforts. The hardcore Nazis could not bear to admit such a thing.

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
You don't know how close we were to revolution in the 1930s.

Errr, yes, I do. No, we were never "close to revolution." We have these things in America called "elections," and they have a way of giving the people a voice. I don't recall there being any Communist Party candidates elected to congress, or to high state offices.

The only success the commies had in the '30s was unionization. Even that isn't your vaunted "true communism." Rather the same tired, corrupt dictatorship of the proletariat writ small.

[TheStinger]

The cracking of the Enigma code was incredibly important and helped the Russians be prepapred for kursk

[Sikander]

Originally posted by TheStinger
The cracking of the Enigma code was incredibly important and helped the Russians be prepapred for kursk

Russian penetration of the German High Command had an even more profound effect on their readiness for Kursk than the intercepted communications. They received daily OB and status reports of the highest level in real time. It was a significant advantage more valuable on its face than the spotty and delayed reports Engima provided, and more even more importantly Stalin trusted the information provided by his own intelligence services.

Regarding the productivity of the occupied areas, I tend to agree more with Strangelove than Pat. The Germans seemed to be much more interested in stripping valuables than in maintaining, improving or transforming production in the occupied areas. Considering how vast the potential was it was a major miscalculation, completely in line with their own failure to completely mobilize their own resources until late in the war. It is perhaps doubtful that fuel production and other key shortage areas would have been greatly effected, but certainly things like tank and vehicle production could have been improved greatly at an early enough date to have materially effected things. Additionally having more of the population of the occupied territories gainfully employed (even if only in producing for their own benefit) would have improved the popularity of the Nazi puppet regimes and reduced the numbers of those who actively opposed them and increasing the numbers of foreign volunteers serving in the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS.

[KrazyHorse]

At what point did German defeat in WW2 become inevitable?

Duh? Sept. 10 1939: Canada declares war on Germany

[Drake Tungsten]

Well, KrazyHorse got it. Everyone can go home now.

[Fake Boris]

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Well, KrazyHorse got it. Everyone can go home now.

So far we're 2 for 2 kicking Deutschland's ass.

[Drake Tungsten]

And 1 for 1 at kicking America's ass. Canada rules!!!

[Kuciwalker]

It might go differently the next time

[Bosh]

Originally posted by techumseh


At the time of the Normandy landings, the Yugoslav partisans were holding down more German divisions than 2 Allied armies in Italy.

Only crappy old man divisions for the most part. There are German divisions and then there are German divisions, Yugoslavia got the bottom of the barrel and thus the partisans' activities aren't as impressive as they appear.

[techumseh]

There were crappy divisions facing the western allies too. There were a number of 'ersatz' units in Italy and a large number of static divisions in France, some comprised of paroled Russian POW's